We Like to Watch

This week, television. What we watch, what we watch it on, and what we do while we watch it. Not only is the technology of TV changing, but the content is morphing in a way that alters what we think of as “television.” Is a YouTube video TV? Sure, right. What about a Snapchat story, or a local city council meeting on Twitter? Yes—why not. The hosts discuss these changes in light of YouTube’s new app, Twitter’s new strategy, Snap’s new hardware, and Roku’s new future-proofed players.

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The Wrist Is Interesting

The market for wrist-worn fitness trackers is cooling. With recent reports of Fitbit’s profits dipping and the Apple Watch sales numbers not being super-great, a narrative has emerged over the last few weeks that wearables will soon be dead. There’s some truth to that, though in reality, it just means that the industry is changing to meet new consumer demands. David and Michael discuss what needs to happen for the market to get more interesting.

Human Enough

On this week’s Gadget Lab Podcast, we discuss voice assistants. We’re spending a lot of time talking to our devices. They’re talking back, too—products like Google Home and Amazon Echo can answer questions, give us helpful information, and tell stupid jokes. But what’s the end result of all this gabbing? Smarter AI assistants, sure. But the way we bark commands at our voice-controlled tech and treat the devices like lowly machines … is that making us ruder? Should we design the computers to talk to us more like humans in order to encourage empathy, or should we keep them cold and machine-like so we don’t get unhealthily attached? Is this even a problem?

Computer Class

Yes, sleek mobiles are going to take over the world … eventually. For now, some of us still need powerful PCs. This week, we got to see that Microsoft and Apple are still intent on wowing our socks off when it comes to hardware for developers and creative professionals. With the new Surface Studio from Microsoft and the redesigned MacBook Pro from Apple, we’ve got some great options.

We’re All Talk

Have we reached peak smartphone? The Pixel maybe just tipped the scales, and it did so right at the moment we’re getting ready to move on to something else. With so many voice-controlled, non-smartphone devices in our homes, it sure feels like we’re at a flux point. Also, the Google Assistant, which lives in the Pixel, is so so powerful, and we’re headed for more of that. Michael and David (who is back from Bogota) discuss the changes in the personal tech landscape.

Arcade Fire

With the release of PSVR and the impending launch of Google’s new phone-based VR platform, virtual reality has hit a new high water mark. We bring in an expert, WIRED’s own Peter Rubin, to chart all of it. Peter manages WIRED’s culture and entertainment coverage and co-hosts The Monitor, our culture podcast. Peter is also well-steeped in face computers: he’s written stellar storiesabout Oculus and he’s been testing and ranking each new VR system as it’s released. With David out this week, Michael and Peter talk about PSVR, Google Daydream View, and the future of “untethered” real-deal VR.

Google’s Voice-Activated Future

The tech giant finally made good on its promise to get serious about hardware. This week saw the debut of two new Pixel phones (the first ever phones from Google), plus the retail release of Google Home and the Daydream View phone-based VR headset. The Pixel phones are exciting—not only because of their premium design, but also because they include the new Google Assistant, a more advanced version of Google Now that helps you communicate, make plans, and run your life more efficiently. But, maybe it doesn’t work super-great just yet.